UU confident of good performance
UNITED Utilities said today it continued to make progress and is “confident” of delivering good financial results in the full year.
UU, the North West’s only member of the FTSE 100, said its financial position was “robust” and that its drive to deliver a better operational performance and again meet pipe leakage targets were progressing well.
The company is continuing to invest millions of pounds in the region’s water infrastructure, and this week appointed a lead contractor on for a £125m project to create a 34 mile water pipeline between Greater Manchester and Liverpool.
It flagged up today that it faced higher power costs and rising bad debt levels as consumers struggled to pay their bills.
A spokeswoman said: “Like everyone, we are having to pay more for our power, but we are not as affected as some other water companies as we pump our water down-hill from the Lake District.”
She said the company had injected a further £2m into its charitable trust to help financially-troubled customers pay their water bills.
In November the Warrington company, which supplies seven million customers in the region, said half year profits leapt from £252.4m to £305.9m. Revenues from continuing operations grew 5% to £1.2bn after being allowed to raise prices by 7.8%.
UU said today it had enough money to meet what it needs to spend on infrastructure improvements until 2011.
Its subsidiary United Utilities Water took out a £400m loan from the European Investment Bank last year and in December and January issued bonds totalling £300m.
